Boxing Tips: Matt Gipon’s best bets for Saturday night’s bouts include a 16/1 shout
Boxing Tips
8pm Jack Rafferty v Reece MacMiillan
Reece MacMillan to win
9pm Masood Abdulah v Zak Miller
Masood Abdulah to win the fight in round 7-12
10.30pm Derek Chisora v Otto Wallin
Derek Chisora, points of decision
Draw
*All prices are bang up to date with our snazzy widgets, while odds in copy are accurate at time of publishing but subject to change.
The Derek Chisora show keeps rolling on – this weekend, the veteran fan-favourite takes on Swedish nearly-man Otto Wallin in this weekend’s Boxing action. The card at Manchesters’s Co-op Live Arena also features the British title fight between Jack Rafferty and Reece MacMillan and the Commonwealth scrap between Masood Abdulah and Zak Miller.
Co-op Live Arena, Manchester
TV: TNT Sports
8pm Saturday, Jack Rafferty v Reece MacMillan – Reece Macmillan to win
Jack Rafferty and Reece MacMillan are both coming off the best wins of their careers. Rafferty, 29, took apart the highly touted Henry Turner last October and picked up the British and Commonwealth super lightweight straps, while MacMillan won an area title after taking care of tough gatekeeper Kane Gardner.
Rafferty has the unblemished record and the much higher KO ratio, but I think this is going to be a close fight. The champ is rightly the favourite, and he might have just too much power, but MacMillan is wildly overpriced for this contest and I’m taking the massive odds on an upset win.
9pm Saturday, Masood Abdulah v Zak Miller – Masood Abdulah To Win The Fight In Round 7-12
Zak Miller is a decent domestic-level featherweight, but Abdulah might be a bit special. In his last three fights, Masood Abdulah, 31, stopped former British champ Marc Leach, KO’d 2016 Olympian Qais Ashfaq, and outclassed the unbeaten George Stewart.
I’m confident that London’s Abdulah will retain his Commonwealth title, but it’s a close call whether he’ll do it on points or by KO. The champ can be aggressive, and I think he might put more pressure on him than Miller can handle in the later rounds. Abdulah to win in the second half of the fight is the way to go here.
10.30 Saturday, Derek Chisora v Otto Wallin – Derek Chisora, points or decision
Speculation about Derek Chisora retiring has been swirling for more than five years, but the North London brawler, 41, has three wins from his last four outings, including a victory over Joe Joyce. Otto Wallin is in the opposite corner this weekend, but the odds suggest that Paddy thinks it’s time for Delboy to hang up his gloves.
After putting in a decent showing in defeat to Fury in 2019, Wallin notched up six wins against modest opposition before being beaten up in five rounds by Anthony Joshua in 2023. The big Swede has only fought once since that defeat – a round 1 KO win against a journeyman.
Wallin, 35, has claimed that he has been avoided his whole career, and it means that, other than the defeats to Fury and Joshua, he hasn’t faced a top 20 rival. Despite the easy run, he has only managed to record a 55% KO ratio.
With his age and inactivity, I don’t think Wallin is at his best anymore, while Chisora has shown that he’s still rough and game, so I can’t see a Wallin win by knockout. The question is whether Wallin can keep ‘War’ Chisora from him.
Derek keeps throwing even when he’s getting hit and exhausted – in his dust-up with Joyce six months ago, Chisora outfought a 6’6’’, 280-pound man known as the Juggernaut, and even knocked him down in the 9th stanza.
The Brit hasn’t won by stoppage since 2019, and the chance that he can pin down a backfoot southpaw boxer like Wallin seems small. The price for Chisora to win on points looks like great value, and I’m backing him to keep his show on the road for a little bit longer.
Draw
Although Chisora impressed in his win against Joyc,e he didn’t look so sharp in his only outing of 2023 – when Delboy faced sluggish American veteran Gerald Washington he only managed a close decision victory.
Tight points results have been a feature of Chisora’s career – fights with Kubrat Pulev, Dillian Whyte, Agit Kabayel, and Parker have all ended in split or mixed decisions. Wallin fits in with that class of heavyweight and I wouldn’t be surprised if the result on Saturday is the first draw of Chisora’s career.
Saturday’s Boxing Tips
8pm Jack Rafferty v Reece MacMiillan
Reece MacMillan to win
9pm Masood Abdulah v Zak Miller
Masood Abdulah to win the fight in round 7-12
10.30pm Derek Chisora v Otto Wallin
Derek Chisora, points of decision
Draw
*All prices are bang up to date with our snazzy widgets, while odds in copy are accurate at time of publishing but subject to change.
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